I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, diabetes, chronic fatigue, arthritis, Lupus Anti-coagulating disorder, weight gain, low Vitamin D levels, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, lactose intolerance, gluten sensitivity,panic attacks, ADD and depression. Two days after I turned 44 I suffered two TIA's. My body was being plagued by yeast overgrowth. This is my journey to become yeast free and get my life back. I hope it helps others who are going through the same pain and suffering.

I am equally disturbed that this diet has provided millions of dollars of income for health coaches. The more people you get under you...the more money you make.

It might start out about "health". I think it almost always does. People want to lose weight.You have a little success and then become a health coach with Take Shape For Life.Tthen the money starts coming in.

The blinders go on.

You never really looked at what your were eating in the first place.

You just took for granted that since someone told you it is "healthy and so good for you", it must be ok to eat.

You completely ignore that FACT that all Medifast products contain processed ingredients, artifical sweeteners, toxic chemicals .....a lot of things that are harmful to your body and you just never eat.

You ignore the fact that it's really not "healthy". Because, after all, you have lost weight and that was your goal.

So I have taken the ingredients from several of the bars, shakes, snacks, and other "food" items from the main website and looked each one up.

You know you can do this yourself, right?

It's all right there all the website.

Everything is spelled out before your very eyes.

Cut, paste, Google.

It's what I did.

Easy.

Just do it yourself and see what is in this crap.

I will start with 2 products that I looked up. I am mainly looking at the "what is that for" ingredients. Not all of them are bad. But the bad ones are really bad.Just so you know- I left out the vitamin and mineral ingredients. They are all basically the same for every "product". Vitamins are vitamins.

Soy protein isolate: More about soy hereAll soy products, and therefore all soy byproducts, contain phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens are plant derived compounds that have the ability to mimic the effects of estrogen in the body. They can have a negative effect on the hormonal balances of men, women and children, including the enlargement or depression of the thyroid gland, which could lead to rapid weight gain or loss. The method by which soy protein isolate is processed and manufactured involves acid washing it in aluminum tanks. As a result, large amounts of aluminum are placed into the finished product. Aluminum is know to be toxic to the body, especially the kidneys, the nervous system, and the brain. In addition, nitrites and chemical flavorings are used to add flavor. These chemicals have been linked to the development of certain cancers, allergies and even Alzheimer's disease. Soy increases estrogen activity in the body. Men that consume large amounts of soy protein isolate on a daily basis may experience a reduction in sperm count or a lower libido.

Additionally 99% of soy is genetically modified and it also has one of the highest percentages of contamination by pesticides of any of our foods.

The native protein present in soy is fragile and is easily denatured, or broken down, by the use of high temperatures required for the production of soy protein isolate and textured soy vegetable protein. The by-products of this high temperature processing results in the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines and toxic lysinoalanine.

Because of this problem, soy protein isolate products should not be the protein of choice for the human body.

Whew!

And that is just the first ingredient!

Fructose:

After eating fructose, 100 percent of the metabolic burden rests on your liver. With glucose, your liver has to break down only 20 percent.

Every cell in your body, including your brain, utilizes glucose. Therefore, much of it is "burned up" immediately after you consume it. By contrast, fructose is turned into free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL (the damaging form of cholesterol), and triglycerides, which get stored as fat.

Fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate. In other words, fructose converts to activated glycerol (g-3-p), which is directly used to turn FFAs into triglycerides. The more g-3-p you have, the more fat you store. Glucose does not do this.

The metabolism of fructose by your liver creates a long list of waste products and toxins, including a large amount of uric acid, which drives up blood pressure and causes gout.

Glucose suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin and stimulates leptin, which suppresses your appetite. Fructose has no effect on ghrelin and interferes with your brain's communication with leptin, resulting in overeating.

Natural and Artificial flavors: And that would be.....??? They leave ya hanging on this one.

Guar gum: A natural thinkener. Used in many puddings, ice cream, dressings. It used to in prescription diet pills. The guargum would bind with liquids in the stomach and swell, causing a feeling of satisfying fullness. However, this mass of swollen guargum would also cause dangerous intestinal and duodenal blockages. Guargum was declared unsafe and ineffective for use as a non-prescription diet aid, although it is still used in small amounts as a food thickener and binder. Ewwwww.....

Acesulfame potassium:

Acesulfame K contains the carcinogen methylene

chloride.

Long-term exposure to methylene chloride can cause

headaches, depression, nausea, mental confusion,

liver effects, kidney effects, visual disturbances, and

cancer in humans. (Just for fun I googled methylene

chloride and this is what I found out about it: Methylene chloride, also called dichloromethane, is a volatile, colorless liquid with a chloroform-like odor. Methylene chloride is used in various industrial processes in many different industries: paint stripping, pharmaceutical manufacturing, paint remover manufacturing, metal cleaning and degreasing, adhesives manufacturing and use, polyurethane foam production, film base manufacturing, polycarbonate resin production, and solvent distribution and formulation.)

Paint stripping?!!!

Metal cleaning?!!!

Acesulfame potassium also

You really want to ingest this?

And now for my favorite:

Artificial color (Red 40, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Blue 1)

Nice.

Very nice Medifast people.

Very healthy.

Known to cause behavior problems in children just to

name one....

Yup.

So, to sum up this delicious nutritious shake...you

have just ingested into your body:

genetically modified soy

methylene chloride

great paint stripper

a metal cleaner

artificial food dyes

food thickener that was taken out of diet pills because

intestines were blocked

sugar

more artificial flavors of unknown origin

some milk protein

some coffee ( cause we all need more stimulants in

our lives)

some fiber(oh, that was the inulin and oat fiber)

Vitamins thrown in to make it look "healthy".

Yummy! I don't know about you but I can't wait for

the next one of these to ingest! This is only one out of

the 5 full of crap healthy nutritious meals you get in a

whole day!

So- on to the second "product" I looked into. One of

the bars.

Caramel Crunch Bar

Soy Protein Isolate, Polydextrose, Maltitol Syrup,

Oligofructose, Glycerine,Brown Rice Syrup, Peanut

Butter (Peanuts, Mono and Diglycerides, Salt, Mixed

Tocopherols), Non Fat Dry Milk, Butter, Natural and

Artificial Flavor, Rice Starch, Peanut Flour, Sunflower

Oil with tocopherol, Milk Protein Isolate, Evaporated

Cane Juice, Soy Lecithin, Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil,

Maltodextrin, Salt, Cocoa Powder, Sucralose,

Dextrose, Carrageenan, Distilled Monoglycerides.

Soy Protein Isolate: see above description...

Polydextrose: Polydextrose, a synthetic food additive, is commonly made from the glucose in corn starch. "Dextrose" is sugar, plain and simple. Polydextrose is a sweet manufactured product from dextrose which supposedly acts like fiber. Polydextrose can cause a variety of side effects, including abdominal cramping, bloating and excessive gas.

Very nice!

So it's sugar that makes you fart!

Maltitol Syrup: Maltitol is a sugar alcohol, an ingredient commonly used in low-carb or “sugar-free” products such as candy and nutrition bars. It is used so much because of its similarity to sugar in terms of taste, mouth feel, and interaction with other ingredients. Products which use maltitol and other sugar alcohols as sweeteners can be called “sugar free.” It also causes intestinal gas and cramping, but some people may find themselves with diarrhea. If you decide to eat products with maltitol, you’d be wise to start with a small amount and judge the reaction -- as well whether you’ll be in a crowded room a few hours later.

Polydextrose, Maltitol Syrup, Oligofructose,Evaporated

Cane Juice,Dextrose- Wow! That is a whole lot of

SUGAR!!!!! When it comes to sugar, virtually all forms

will be toxic to your health in the long run. Switching

from refined white sugar to cane sugar, date sugar,

coconut sugar, brown rice syrup, fruit juice, molasses,

maple syrup, sucanat, sorghum, turbinado or agave

syrup will NOT ameliorate any of the risks as they all

contain HIGH amounts of fructose.

Peanut Butter: Some facts about peanuts you should

know...A 1993 study demonstrated 24 different t

types of fungi that colonized the inside of the

peanuts used in the report (Costantini, A. Etiology

and Prevention of Atherosclerosis. Fungalbionics

Series.1998/99). And this was after the exterior of the

peanut was sterilized! So, when you choose to eat

peanuts, not only are you potentially eating these

molds, but also their mycotoxins. (Incidentally, in the

same study the examiners found 23 different fungi on

the inside of corn kernels.)

Peanut flour: read above statement...

Soy lechitin: Already stated why soy is bad.....any

soy....

Fractionated Palm Kernel Oil: Palm Kernel Oil is the vegetable equivalent of wax. It defies the most robust of digestive enzymes and scoots right through your bowels at illegal speeds. You will burp a lot meanwhile. "Fractionated" means "cooked at high temperatures in the presence of a catalyst to break it down" - into a slightly more digestible form. It will still scoot through your bowels, but just below illegal speeds. Oh, goody!

Carrageenan: a thickening agent. It's the vegetarian
equivalent of casein, the same protein that is isolated
from milk and used to thicken foods. Casein is also
used to produce paints, and is the glue used to hold
a label to a bottle of beer. Carrageenan is the magic
ingredient used to de-ice frozen airplanes sitting on
tarmacs during winter storms.

So- to sum up the Caramel Crunch Bar...you have just ingested:

soy protein (bad for you)

milk protein

Sugar that gives you gas

Sugar alcohol that gives you more intestinal discomfort

Sugar with about 6 different names

sugar from brown rice

mycotoxins from peanuts

fungi from peanuts

aflatoxins from peanuts

peanut flour mycotoxins

fractionated pooping oil

something similar to DDT

airplane de-icer!

glue for labels

mycotoxins from maltodextrin

those artificial flavors from unknown origin again

some vitamins and minerals ( because after all this stuff is supposed to be healthy)

Alright! I am feeling healthier by the minute! In 2 meals I am amazed at all the complete garbage healthy ingredients just ingested.

Friday, November 25, 2011

As you walk through your grocery store's meat department, you will come across some very enticing, yet misleading labeling. You might look at a beef label that says "All Natural" and think it sounds pretty good. However, even though the meat is labeled "All Natural", producers can still give their animals Growth Hormones, Antibiotics and raise the animals in crowded feedlots on an unnatural grain-based diet.

The "All Natural" label may be used on any meat that has been minimally processed and containing no artificial ingredients. This simply means that no chemicals can be added to the meat during or after processing. So, sadly, under these guidelines, most commercial beef and chicken sold raw in the grocery store qualifies for this label.

1. All Natural—As defined by the USDA, “natural” or “all-natural” means the meat has been minimally processed and contains no preservatives or artificial ingredients. This simply means that no chemicals can be added to the meat during or after processing (although using a chemical disinfectant bath during process to try to reduce E. coli on the carcass is allowed) . Since virtually all fresh beef conforms to these standards, the term has no real significance. The "natural" label does not exclude meats raised using feed-grade antibiotics or hormone implants, nor does it exclude animals raised in a feedlot. The USDA does not even regulate this term on labels, meaning that meat labeled as such is not given any additional inspection.Beef bearing the USDA's "Natural" label can be grown, fed and handled in the same way as other common cattle.

2. Organic— Beef that carries the USDA organic logo has met the department’s standards, which prohibit the use of growth hormones, antibiotics, genetically modified feed, and animal byproducts. However, the standards do not require a grass-only diet; the animal can still be fed an unnatural and unhealthy grain based diet.

3. Pasture Finished—means a producer can feed his animals a “grain-based diet” as long as animals have access to pasture. The problem is that merely opening a gate from the feedlot into an adjacent “small” pasture qualifies as Pasture Finished. Unfortunately, cattle are similar to humans and prefer sweet foods like grain and corn to grass. They will, therefore, spend the majority of their time at the feed trough and a minority of time eating grass…if there is grass to eat.

4. Grass-fed—according to the USDA, "grass-fed" means an animal must have “access” to grass and pasture during its life, and the animal must get the majority of its nutrients from grass. However, there is no restriction on the use of antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides, and the program is voluntary, which means a producer may use “grass-fed” on its labels without verification. True grass-fed beef should be pasture raised from beginning to end. It is not enough to feed the animals 100% grass and hay, but not raise them in pasture. Unfortunately, the USDA's current voluntary labeling guidelines do not strictly enforce this concept. So just because it says "grass-fed" on the label does not mean the animal was grass-fed and pasture raised from beginning to end.It has been well documented that the magic of grass fed beef occurs only when the animal is pasture raised AND grass fed from beginning to end.

About Me

I am a child of God, a wife to Jeff, a mother to 3 beautiful children, and a homeschooler. I have had ongoing health problems for years but it all came crashing down this past spring 2010. I was plagued with diagnosis after diagnosis. I was finally ready to change.